I dare you not to be offended

by this image

which is of the mug I drink my tea from every morning. It's apparently the same image the BBC was too cowardly to show recently when it featured on T-shirts worn by two members of a studio audience . I bought the mug several years ago, from Cafepress, and link to Jesus and Mo from this blog. I am a Christian, and I find Jesus and Mo amusing. Maajid Nawaz is a Muslim, and finds this image inoffensive. He is a Liberal Democrat too, but perhaps he'll grow out of that. There are now death threats and calls for a fatwa on Maajid Nawaz, because he refuses to be offended. This is what the Telegraph had to say:

Muslim politician Maajid Nawaz tweeted a picture of a t-shirt with a crudely-drawn cartoon entitled ‘Jesus and Mo’ which he describes as an “innocuous” and inoffensive.

However the image has caused fury among some members of the Islamic community who believe images of the prophet Muhammed are forbidden.

More than 7,000 people have now signed a petition calling for the Liberal Democrats to suspend Mr Nawaz.

Some have even suggested a fatwa should be placed on him while others have threatened they would be “glad to cut your neck off”.

Even the controversial MP George Galloway has waded into the row, tweeting: “No Muslim will ever vote for the Liberal Democrats anywhere ever unless they ditch the provocateur Majid Nawaz, cuckold of the EDL.”

What is happening in England? What?

offensive language and freedom of expression

here we go again. When I posted this last September there was some outrage and hissy-fit throwing, with assorted queeny behavior, but hey, don't mix me up with anyone who cares a jot about that kind of stuff, other than being mildly amused by it from time to time. To save you looking if you are a Guardian reader and thus need protection from ideas, it's the MoToons published by the French satirical weekly  Charlie Hebdo. No embassies were burned down following the toons' publication, and there was no rioting in "the Arab world" as some still quaintly call it, despite predictions from Guardianista types that there would be. I imagine Robert Fisk was in there too, but I can't be bothered to look. I had the temerity to suggest that the Front National leader Marine Le Pen might be correct when she said that freedom of expression was not negotiable. Now, freedom of expression is under attack again, this time from a Twitter mob. Twitter is of course quintessentially about freedom of expression; nevertheless the mob attack came from some people who objected to an essay by Suzanne Moore on the bullying and silencing of women, because of a reference she made to trans people. Read it here. The attack, naturally, was ad hominem and not about the issues at all. Suzanne Moore commented on the attack here (caution: don't read the comments if you have just eaten). Things have now moved on, because Julie Burchill supported Suzanne Moore, and wrote a piece saying so, which has been published in The Observer newspaper. You can read it here. Julie Burchill used quite extreme language, and deliberately used back at them the tactic used by the Twitter attackers, namely to refer to those with a particular identity by collective epithets, i.e. intended to apply to that whole group, which would be perceived as offensive by many. So, there was a collective fit of the vapours by the original perpetrators, and comments on the stupid left (example from Laurie Penny: "Fuck Julie Burchill". Nice. Grown-up, hein?) and now the police have been complained to. What next? Lock a person up for expressing views, or using language, that some people don't like?

Oh.

You know, peeps, if you don't like something you read you could always, er, not read anything by that person any more. You really could.

Oh, and I learned something too. Apparently people like me, identified as female at birth and who remain happy that way, are to be called "cisgender". You know, "cis" like "cistern". We'd better get used to it, hadn't we, girls?

oh dear what have I done

It seems that this post from a while ago, in which I reproduced certain cartoons published by the French satirical mag Charlie Hebdo, has been found "shocking" by at least one of my French followers and blog readers, who felt that publication might place people at risk.  Whoever thought that was both wrong and risible.  But even if they had been right it still would have been OK to publish the cartoons.  Because freedom of expression  is, er, not negotiable.  Got that?  Even if, especially if, publication causes offence.

MoToons - the mainstream

from Le Monde

I didn't translate the captions from the Charlie Hebdo cartoon in the previous post, largely because they sound too silly in English.  This one though from Le Monde this morning goes like this:
"Hey, how about if I wound up those wild animals a bit, just to show them who's civilised?"
*missile hits shark*
"You're not funny any more, Charlie."

MoToons - to the barricades!



this is satire - Charlie Hebdo

 the weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is publishing - not sure if it is on newsstands, my tabac did not have it this morning - pictures including the cartoon shown here.  It was scary to see Marine Le Pen of the Front National interviewed this morning and to agree with just about everything she said.  Not the language she used, which was pure dog-whistle - "en France" punctuated every sentence, because Muslims are of course Foreign and Not Like Us and Not From Here - but she said that freedom of expression and the rule of law are not negotiable.  Which they are not.  And that if anyone thinks these cartoons have gone too far in the direction of causing racial injury (which is a criminal offence in France) then let them go to court.  The Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said the same thing, just phrased rather differently and without the dog-whistle, and also cautioned against "provocation".  The editor of Charlie Hebdo said the magazine takes the piss every week using cartoons, and only when the cartoons represent (apparently, allegedly) the Prophet Mohammed does it become "provocation".  Anyway, the Charlie Hebdo offices are in lockdown today and surrounded by CRS.  Makes you wonder - Jesus and Mo do cartoons several times a week, most recently captioned "R.E.S.P.E.C.T., I'll burn down your embassy!"  Wonderful stuff.